Panthers prospect Garrett Wilson was First Star once again with a goal and an assist to lead Owen Sound to a road win in Windsor and a 3-1 series lead. The attack scored twice in the third to take a 3-1 lead, then hung on to win 3-2. Lightning prospect Geoffrey Schemitsch was scoreless in the game, but has six points in his last seven games. Michael Zador did not dress for Owen Sound. Stars pick Jack Campbell was Second Star with 41 saves for the Spits. Game 5 is Wednesday in Owen Sound.

After defeating the top-seeded Winterhawks 2-1 in Game 1, Spokane was looking to take a stranglehold on the series Sunday and took a 1-0 lead late in the first period, but Portland replied less than 30 seconds later to tie the game and eventually win it on a second period power play goal. Ryan Johansen (Blue Jackets) scored the winner for Portland. Lightning prospect Tyler Johnson was scoreless in his return to the Chiefs lineup. He was suspended for Game 1 for a kneeing major taken in the last game of the Tri-City series. Spokane outshot Portland 13-5 in the final period to try to get the game tying goal, but were turned away by Mac Carruth (Blackhawks). Portland outshot Spokane 20-5 in the second period. Game 3 is Wednesday in Spokane. The series will follow a traditional 2-2-1-1-1 format.

And thatâ€™s that. Dubuque scored twice in the first period while outshooting the Force 13-5, then withstood a 14-1 shot onslaught in the third period to defeat Fargo 3-0 and advance to the conference finals. Lightning prospect Jimmy Mullin, who led the team in scoring during the regular season, was shut out of both this series and the qualifying round. That said, he had a great first (and only) season in the USHL and will take his talents to the Miami Redhawks of the NCAA next season.

A brave Norfolk Admirals team has nothing to be ashamed about effort-wise in this playoffs.

NOR-3
WBS-6

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Wins the Series 4-2

Dustin Tokarski allowed 4 goals on 27 shots, including an unsuccessful third period penalty shot by Joe Vitale in the third period. Considering the winning goal was essentially a 3-on-1, there's not much more Tic could've done tonight. He finishes the playoffs with 1 shutout, a 2.20 GAA, and a .924 save percentage, and he looks like a lock to be Norfolk's starter next season. In all likelihood, Cedrick Desjardins will be the backup in Tampa Bay next season, and Tokarski's play down the stretch seems to indicate he's the type of netminder who wants and needs to be the clear cut #1 in order to be at his best after struggling a bit as a tandem starter with Desjardins. He's regained the title of the Lightning's "Goaltender of the Future" and the priority for next season, his third pro season, will be for Tokarski to prove he can be that consistent #1 goalie before potentially moving up to the NHL in the 4th season of his pro career. At least, that seems to be what the plan is for Tic.

When you consider the Penguins came into this series the best team in the Eastern Conference, and the Admirals had to win their last game just to avoid having to cross over into the Atlantic Division, the Admirals have nothing to feel ashamed of in playing this series so tightly. The hard work and character of this Admirals team is worthy of mention, and the team and organization have come such a long way in 4 seasons since the Lightning started their affiliation with Norfolk.

Coincidentally, the East's crossover team, Binghamton, just knocked off Manchester in Game 7 to advance to the Atlantic Division final against Portland. One wonders what shape a Norfolk/Manchester series might have taken if Norfolk hadn't beaten Connecticut to close the regular season.

The big question now is what this Norfolk Admirals team will look like next season, with several of their older players facing contract decisions and several of the Lightning's best young prospects ticketed for Virginia next season.

Will veterans like Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Chris Durno, Mike Vernace, Mathieu Roy, and Troy Milam be back with the team next year? What about long-time pros like Blair Jones, Mike Angelidis, Mattias Ritola, and Vladimir Mihalik? Mihalik and Ritola just finished their 4th years of pro hockey and Jones and Angelidis finished their 5th. Many of these players will surely have opportunities to play in European leagues next season. We know Johan Harju will, for instance, and the question is whether Johan will stay in North America after a disappointing second half. And will Kevin Quick's time in the Lightning organization be over as well?

Conversely, the Admirals will need to free up spots for several of the Lightning's top prospects. Carter Ashton and Charles Landry have already made appearances for the club this season in the playoffs. Richard Panik and Tyler Johnson seem like locks to be in Norfolk next season, too.

Next season could be a big change for the Admirals organization, as the last vestiges of previous regimes pass on. Change is inevitable for a minor league club, but the Admirals seem destined for even more change than is the norm. The good news is that they seem to have good goaltending locked down and even better coaching after a successful inaugural campaign by Head Coach Jon Cooper and assistant Mike Flanagan along with player development consultant Steve Thomas. This group seems to have taken a decent foundation laid by earlier teams and made it even stronger this year, and that foundation can help the new Admirals grow to be even more successful than this year's edition, in time. Look at how well guys like Mark Barberio and Radko Gudas took to the league this season. It portends good things.

Ain't it amazing what you can do when you don't shoot yourself in the foot at the start of every game?

TB-8
PIT-2

Pittsburgh Leads the Series 3-2

Dwayne Roloson allowed 2 goals on 33 shots for the victory. He did not look strong early and again was battling the puck, but give him credit: he held the Pens out early. After sacrificing soft goals early in Game 3 and Game 4, he did enough to make sure he didn't poison the morale and energy of his team by sacrificing another early goal in Game 5. That's what the Lightning need right now.

The Lightning did a lot of very good things to take that first big step to climbing their way out of the hole in this series. Game 6 is going to need to be the same way: hand over hand, step by step, keep climbing. They can't look beyond the next shift or the next play, and they can't allow themselves to get too comfortable after their huge win today.

They did do a lot of very important things in this game. Simon Gagne started to look like Simon Gagne again after the elbow to the head in Game 3. Steven Stamkos finally broke out of his long slumber. The Lightning's 4th line even managed to put together a goal in some garbage time power play minutes. They also chased Fleury and got the Pens very frustrated and had them making some very undisciplined plays, that I imagine could lead to a suspension or two. I've been pretty shocked at how dirty and classless some of the Penguins have been in this series. The sour grapes Kris Letang boarding penalty after Dominic Moore scored the snowman goal was as classless as it gets. That has no place in hockey. That was intent to injure from a player who had sour grapes because the Lightning just put the cherry on top of a butt-whipping sundae. I suspect the league will turn a blind eye, but if that was Steve Downie doing that, he'd be suspended every time. Guaranteed.

The guy who really was a big catalyst in this game, who probably won't get the ink he deserves, is Teddy Purcell. That first goal by Gagne came off of a gorgeous passing play and Purcell followed up with two gorgeous passes to Pavel Kubina for a pair of third period power play goals. He's been asked to shoot the puck more all season long, but he was looking to pass more today, and he's a heck of a passer.

Another guy who won't get a lot of ink is Marc-Andre Bergeron, who made his first appearance in the series this afternoon. BoltProspects writer Chad Schnarr has been advocating to get Bergeron in the lineup to try to break down Pittsburgh's trap. Mind you, with the Lightning jumping out to such a big lead, the Pens' trap was off the table. But Bergeron did play well with a helper and 3 hits. I am skeptical of Bergeron defensively, but I only detected 1 mistake today, and he was definitely a net positive to the team.

Only big downside of this game: Mike Lundin's getting killed out there. He was overpowered on the play that led to Rupp's goal and he's been taking 3-4 huge pops every single game of this series. The Pens are targeting him. They know he's a little soft and they know he doesn't have the upper body strength and they're going after him. He was much more positionally sound today than he was in Game 3 and Game 4, but he's been a liability in the past 3 games. Guys like Kubina have adjusted their games. Lundin's struggling, and I think it's mostly because he's just not built for playoff hockey.

Now the Lightning have approximately 52 hours to prepare for Game 6. They need to forget about this game and approach Monday with the same desperation, and Roloson needs to continue to get stronger. I thought the final 2 periods were good for him because he got to see quite a few shots without a lot of pressure and it allowed him to get a little more comfortable in his game. My deepest wish: if Roloson plays as well in Game 6 and Game 7 as he did in Game 1 and Game 2. If he does, I like the Lightning's chances a lot.

Fargo scored first, but eventually fell to top-seeded Dubuque 2-1 and now trails the series 2-0. Dubuque won in overtime Wednesday in the series opener. Both of the Fighting Saints goals Friday were scored in the second period. Lightning prospect Jimmy Mullin, who earlier in the day was named to the USHL All-Rookie team, tied for the team lead with three shots on goal. Game 3 is Saturday in North Dakota.

Gatineau won their fifth game in a row and Janosik (pictured) scored for the second straight game as Gatineau stole home ice advantage from the Remparts with a 2-1 Game 1 win. Janosikâ€™s goal was scored on the power play. Game 2 is Saturday in Quebec City.

Windsor held serve at home on the back of Stars first rounder Jack Campbell, who was First Star, stopping 33 of 35 shots. Game 3 is Saturday in Owen Sound. Zador sat backup for the first time since being pulled in Game 1 vs. Plymouth. (*Update posted late due to difficulties with the OHL web site.)

As of the beginning of the second period, Spokane has a 2-0 lead in Game 1 in Portland. Lightning prospect Tyler Johnson, who was named the Western Conference Player of the Year this week, is not playing as heâ€™s serving a one game suspension. He was ejected after a kneeing major in Game 6 vs. Tri-City.

Mark Barberio was the game's second star. Congratulations to him on his first professional playoff goal. It was a big one, as it got the Admirals back in the game and Norfolk nearly cracked Brad Thiesen a couple of time to knot up the score afterward. But, in the end, it was not meant to be.

For the Lightning and Admirals to get swept in 5 home playoff games this week is just rough to take. Rough. To. Take. It hurts. Things looked so promising after the weekend when the teams took all 3 games they played. I certainly didn't expect a week of futility like this. Painful.

Dwayne Roloson allowed 3 goals on 53 shots for the loss. Yes, 50 saves in a big number. Yes, Roloson made several key saves to keep the game close. But, the first goal was a soft goal through Roloson on the short side, the second goal was off a bad rebound kicked straight up the slot, and the third goal was a soft goal short side high from a poor angle off the wall. If you're keeping score at home, that's 3 soft goals and 2 bad rebound goals in the last 2 games. It's a prerequisite in the playoffs for your goaltender to be one of your best players, and you cannot have your goaltender surrendering soft goals early in the game as Roloson has done in Game 3 and Game 4. Nothing sucks the life out of a team and poisons morale quicker, and so much of the playoffs is about willpower. It's frustrating. Roloson was magnificent in Game 1 and Game 2 in Pittsburgh, and if he had maintained that level of play I suspect the Lightning would be winning this series 3-1 instead of being down 3-1. Is he the only reason the Lightning lost the last 2 games? Absolutely not. However, it's a prerequisite for success in the playoffs that a goaltender not surrender bad goals. It cannot happen, and it's happened at least 3 times in the past 2 games.

Martin St. Louis was the game's second star. The telepathy between he and Vincent Lecavalier, who laid out a pretty little aerial pass on the rush to spring St. Louis on his goal, was the stuff of legends.

Mattias Ritola played 2:23 in the match. I suspect there will be some outrage from Southeast Virginia when they see that stat line, and that Blair Jones was a scratch.

All the Lightning can do now is try to win Game 5. They've dug an incredibly deep hole for themselves and they can't leap out with one effort. It's going to take some climbing one hand over the other toward the light, and it starts with putting together a redeeming effort in Game Five. It's going to be a damned bitter offseason if they don't.

Norfolk was allowed to insert Alex Hutchings in the lineup and they added Charles Landry, but they were still without 6 of their best forwards due to injuries and recalls. They may get one or both of Mattias Ritola and/or Blair Jones back for Game Five and with Tri-City being eliminated last night, there's the possibility of adding Carter Ashton to the lineup. Maybe they can get Angelidis or Berry back too? We'll see.

Game Five seems like a must-win, and the Admirals need as many hands on deck as possible.

A springtime snowman in Owen Sound. Andrew Shaw (undrafted) and Joey Hishon (Avalanche) each had two goals and Lightning prospect Geoffrey Schemitsch had two helpers to lead the Attack to a stomping of Windsor in the opening game of the OHL Western Conference Finals. Michael Zador did not dress for the Attack, and at the rate Scott Stajcer is going in net for Owen Sound, he likely wonâ€™t see the ice again outside of a possible trophy-carrying parade around the rink. Dallas Stars first rounder Jack Campbell allowed all eight goals for the Spits. Game 2 is Thursday in Windsor.

Tri-City held a 3-0 lead entering the third period against an opponent whose leading scorer, Lightning prospect Tyler Johnson, was forbidden to return to the game due to a misconduct. Before the Ams could stop dreaming about a Game 6 win and 3-3 series tie, Spokane had scored four times in the first nine minutes of the period to take a one goal lead. TC needed a power play goal to send the game to overtime, but Spokaneâ€™s Levko Koper (Thrashers) scored for the Chiefs to send the club on to the conference finals against Portland beginning Friday in Oregon.

With his team eliminated, Lightning prospect Carter Ashtonâ€™s junior career is now complete. The former Lightning first rounder, who already holds an NHL contract, can join the Norfolk Admirals if the organization so chooses. Next season heâ€™ll be competing for a spot with the big club out of camp.